David Cameron plan for elected mayors rejected as English cities vote no

Yes supporters including (left) Jaya Chakrabarti, chair of the Mayor for Bristol campaign, celebrate victory. Across England, however, most cities rejected plans for elected city mayors. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

David Cameron's ambition of seeing elected "Boris-style" mayors across Britain was thwarted on Friday after voters in nine English cities rejected the idea by referendum.

The results will add to a disappointing night for the prime minister, who had thrown his weight firmly behind the change. He claimed last month it was a "once in a generation" chance to change the way England was run.

In Birmingham, voters surprisingly rejected the plans by 57.8% to 42.2%. The result will have repercussions for the careers of two former Labour ministers. Sion Simon stood down from his parliamentary seat in 2010 to campaign for a Labour mayor. Liam Byrne had said he planned to resign from his seat to stand for the position.

Manchester voted against by a margin of 53.24% to 46.76%, and Nottingham by 57.5% to 42.5%. Both cities had a low turnout of 24%. The outcome in Coventry was more resounding, with just 36.42% backing the change and 63.58% opposing it. In Bradford the vote was 44.87% for and 55.13% against.

In Leeds, the last city to declare, 36.65% wanted to see the new role of mayor created, while an emphatic 63.35% opposed the plan, on a 30.48% turnout.

Critics have argued that the proposals were unnecessary and would have added another expensive layer of bureaucracy.

A senior Tory source agreed that questions may be asked of Eric Pickles, the local government secretary who oversaw the campaign for city mayors. "We seem to have taken our eyes off the ball. Cameron did not need this because it does look like another personal rejection, even though its probably just a cock-up," the source said.

Privately, sources within the Department for Communities and Local Government said the mayoral referendums had been a "disaster" because the department had not envisaged the possiblity of rejection on such a scale.

Cities minister Greg Clark defended the referendums. "The government's view was always that this was a local choice and that people should be given the chance to decide how their city is governed rather than have a mayor imposed upon them," he said.

The rejection will have positive repercussions for Ed Miliband, who faced a number of expensive and perilous by-elections if cities had voted in favour of elected mayors. Labour MPs including former defence minister Bob Ainsworth were expected to resign from their seats if they had won the party's nomination.

Stuart Wilks-Heeg, the director of research organisation Democratic Audit, described the yes campaign as "absolutely lacklustre" and poorly defined. "Usually when people are presented with a referendum they say 'I'll leave it how it is', particularly when they don't understand the issues that well," he said.

But those in Bristol backed change by a margin of 53% to 47%, on a turnout of 24%. Jaya Chakrabarti, chair of the A Mayor For Bristol campaign, said the government had made it difficult to persuade voters on the doorstep to support city mayors because of a lack of explanation of their powers and costs.

"The government has not been specific about the powers that a mayor might have and its been hard explaining how much we will be paying for a new elected leader," she said.

But she added that the government should be applauded for pushing for a referendum. "This is a fresh and relatively new government. It was not well thought out enough but their hearts were in the right place," she said.

In Doncaster, voters were in favour of keeping their elected mayor, Peter Davies, a member of the English Democrats party, by 62% to 38%.

Liverpool's first directly elected mayor will be Labour's Joe Anderson, after he netted 59% of the votes in a landslide. Labour's Ian Stewart has become Salford's first elected mayor after a second round of voting. He topped the poll with 23,459 votes, followed by Conservative Karen Garrido with 10,071. Salford and Liverpool voted in favour of an elected mayor early this year.